THE Men in Blue possess this astonishing ability of reaching both ends of a spectrum within days. Staring at ouster from their own party one moment, the Indian team effected a tremendous turnaround in the ICC World Twenty20 Championship leaving the other participants in awe and fear of their abilities. They not only defied history to create one by winning back to back T20 World Cups and ending the hosts jinx but also put a final stamp on the fact that India are the best Twenty20 team in the world at this moment. Such was the fury and authority shown by India on Sunday night at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

 

The hapless New Zealand will keep ruing their luck of facing a cornered tiger but they will also bow to the dominant show put up by Surya Kumar Yadav’s boys in the final. The end result of a whopping 96-run victory for India will be reminder for the rest of the cricket playing nations that they have this huge deficit to cover before challenging the Men in Blue in T20 cricket. None would have imagined such massive change in fortunes for the Indian team when they clinged on mathematical calculations and results of other games to make the semi-final. After a patchy performance in the league stage and the crushing defeat to South Africa in the Super 8s, the defending champions were staring at an embarrassing exit from the tournament. When ouster loomed large and chinks began to show up as wide cracks, the real Indian team stood up, much to the delight of the home fans.

 

They were used to see an Indian juggernaut in white-ball cricket, at least in the ICC tournaments, but were forced to deal with a team that looked low on belief and its stars struggling to find their mojo. It all changed in one game and history was created on Sunday night. The underlying emotion of this victory will be the faith the team has shown in its own abilities and all those who were going through a difficult phase. The team management chose to cut the outside noise and put faith in Abhishek Sharma, the captain and coach decided to shun the horses-for-courses theory to back Sanju Samson to come good. Both the batsmen were totally out of sorts with a string of low scores. Yet, Surya and coach Gautam Gambhir gave them a free hand, allowing them to get over the mental cobwebs. Both repaid the faith in a handsome manner with Samson becoming the pivot of Indian batting. When it mattered the most, Abhishek Sharma put his hands up and cut the crap about his bad form. Faith towered over statistics and how! Even as the fans wondered why the Indians looked iffy in the initial stage, the team found individuals to bail them out at critical junctures. Many inflection points converged throughout the tournament to keep the team afloat. It is the character of a close-knit unit sharing a great camaraderie to make up for each other’s failure. India did that in the initial stage before turning up their collective might in the knock-out phase.

 

What India brings to the table in Twenty20 cricket was on full display in the last three games (against the West Indies, England in semi-finals, and New Zealand in final). They were authoritative, dictating terms as per their own script, making the opposition follow their acts. England fell to that in the semis and the Kiwis were crushed in the final with the same gameplan. It was perfect implementation of a strategy by a seasoned crack unit. Amid the euphoria of keeping the Cup and adding to the swelling trophy cabinet, one thing must not be forgotten -- the head coach’s insistence on appreciating even the smallest of contributions. While Samson and Jasprit Bumrah took the honours with their supreme abilities, Gambhir kept harping the importance of a little cameo, a good catch, and a tight spell. The two fours of Shivam Dubey against the Windies, the catch by Axar Patel against England, and a quick-fire 20-odd in seven balls by Tilak Varma were hailed as gamechangers. This spirit of appreciation was the fuel in India’s juggernaut.